Wednesday, March 05, 2014

BBC Three is a magic number

Curious to see how the BBC is going to save 100 million by axing BBC Three as a terrestrial channel tomorrow. May be they will turn it into an on-line barker channel? And if BBC Three (or whatever replaces it) suddenly becomes a bandwidth hog, will those who own the pipes demand extra payment, in the same way that Comcast is trying to screw Netflix in the USA.

The channel costs 85 million quid to run in the current financial year, but cutting transmission costs would not recover all these costs. Remember the channel isn't 24 hrs - only starting at 7 pm each evening. We will know more shortly. I wonder why they haven't got rid of BBC News as suggested by Richard Sambrook writing in the Guardian. Now that is a prime target for going online.

In the meantime, remember the BBC 3 blobs idents from 2002? Best continuity campaign ever. I remember the microelectronics blooper originally came from a Kenny Everett show (at least that's where I first heard the blooper).